No Make-over

Instead of writing today, I’m going to quote a part of a speech from a man who said what I wanted to say. You know about not re-inventing the wheel.

“We don’t really quite know what to think about Jesus anymore. Why? Because our culture has given Jesus a make-over. We’ve remade him in the image and likeness of generic compassion. Today he’s not the Lord, the Son of God, but more like an enlightened humanist nice guy.

The problem is this: If Jesus isn’t Lord, if he isn’t the Son of God, then he can’t do anything for us. Then the Gospel is just one more or less interesting philosophy of life. And that’s my first point about how we need to live in a secular age: We need to truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God; true God and true man; the One who holds the words of eternal life. If we aren’t committed to that truth, then nothing else I say can make any sense.

Here’s my second point: Jesus didn’t come down from heaven to tell us to go to church on Sunday. He didn’t die on the cross and rise from the dead so that we’d pray more at home and be a little kinder to our next-door neighbors. The one thing even non-believers can see is that the Gospels aren’t compromise documents. Jesus wants all of us. And not just on Sundays. He wants us to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind. He wants us to love our neighbor as ourselves. In other words, with a love that’s total. We need to take Christ at his word. We need to love him like our lives depend on it.” (A speech by Charles J. Chaput, the Catholic Archbishop of Denver)

I could not say this as well as he did, but a little light bulb went on in my mind when I read the word “make-over.” That’s one of the buzzwords of our day. If something or someone doesn’t look whatever we deem to be acceptable, we do a make-over. He is right; that is what the current culture has done to Jesus. Even to those of us who love and seek to follow him, he has become just a part of our lives. And yet, the other parts can demand so much attention that he is crowded out except maybe for an hour on Sunday.

I need to mull this over and take it to heart. We do need to love him like our lives depend on it. Watch the news and it will be evident that they do.